You would not think it to see it now, but Ardbeg had a difficult time of it for much of the 20th century. The distillery was bought in a joint venture between Hiram Walker and DCL in 1959, both intending to supply their blends. The subsequent years were very successful, but DCL backed out in 1979 (closing many of their other distilleries a few years later), and Hiram Walker then struggled in the 1980s era oversupply when interest is blended Scotch was waning. They closed it down for the majority of the decade. It re-opened briefly in the 1990s before being revived for good by Glenmorangie plc in 1997.

A single cask release, this was distilled on 1972 and bottled at over 30 years old in 2004.

One of 216 drawn from single cask #2781, a bourbon hogshead. These were bottled exclsuively for the French market, and this was awarded a whopping 95 point score of WhiskyFun.com

Ah, a pure old Ardbeg! It’s not that I don’t like the sherried ones, but I’m always more interested in the ‘naked’ versions. Let’s taste this one now… Colour: pale gold. Nose: wow, lots of lemongrass and grapefruit juice at first nosing. The peat is soon to arrive but it’s a very elegant one, far, very far from the trendy ‘smack in your face’ kind of peat promoted by… Ardbeg (Very Young, anyone?) Some great notes of seaweed, sea-urchins, oysters… The lemony smells strike back after a moment, and then the peat smoke again, and then the sea elements… And all these aromas finally melt to give us something really beautiful and unique: an old and pure Ardbeg. Wow! Mouth: oh, what a stunner! A sweet and almost funnily lumpish attack on apple pie and pink grapefruit, which doesn’t manage to hide the big, bold, yet elegant peat blast for very long. Sneaky! It then gets both extremely lemony and smoky, like if you were enjoying some smoked oysters with lemon juice. And no sign of over-ageing whatsoever! Perhaps it’s not extremely complex, but it’s superbly compact and amazingly satisfying. The finish is very, very peaty and again, lemony (or rather on grapefruit). Ah, I’m so glad this ‘Ardbeg for France’ isn’t a sherried one! Austerity at its best!

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